Monday, January 7, 2013

Saw the trailer for Pacific Rim at the cinema when Pam and I saw The Hobbit the other night, and I was reminded of how successful; snub-nose, truncated, foreword sloping Cro Magnon facial features can be when used to indicate insane strength and behemoth scale in any characterization. The first couple of times I was really impressed with this, were with the Dragons of Michael Phillippi, Paul Bonner, and Todd Lockwood.

All three of these brilliant illustrators create amazingly meaty creature heads, by giving them small but detailed orbits, and a brow to jaw line with only one or two surface planes to it. The unconscious mind will read this as a skull structure so dense and solid, that any attack will surely just recoil from the weight. There's many other ways to achieve this, but for giant creatures, it's a great technique, and works every time.

After seeing the trailer, I remembered this sketch floating around on the sketchbook I used in my classes at the PNCA. Done from the Fantasy Genesis role to the left, and revisited on more than one occasion, I thought I'd have another go at this Triceratops Rhino looking fella. I threw some more masculinization into the pose and facial features, but also shrunk his head by giving him bigger limb proportions.

Another double Mammalian role that took a couple tries, but could make a nice protagonist or antagonist when he grows up? Keep sketching, and stay tuned !!